Celebrating children's birthdays.....

[Minnesota!]

we do a huge party for each kid the Saturday closest to their birthday. Have since my oldest turned 1.

Invite about 40 people (family and friends). We have it at our house.

Good food, good friends. It usually goes until 2 - 3 am.

My boys just love it!

 

[tinkntraining]

Maybe it's because I only had one birthday party when I was a kid, but since my girls were born, birthdays have been a huge deal for our family. Not expensive, mind you, but a big deal nonetheless. My girls will be celebrating 15 and 16 years this year, and we will have parties for both. I always tell them the budget -- and they choose to have a party, or just eat cake and ice cream at home and have the budget rolled over into gifts. They've always chosen the party.

We've done Hawaiian Luau's, skating parties, bowling parties, makeover parties, Karaoke parties, McDonald's parties, Little Mermaid parties, Barbie parties, happy face parties, costume parties, mall scavenger hunt parties, and for DD's Sweet 16, this year we'll have a Blacklight Dance Party.

I figure, life's short. Why not make one day a year extra special for the ones you love?

 

[Disney1fan2002]

My kids "age out" of parties after their 10th. (just had my youngest's last one this past Saturday! WOOHOO)

Now, when it's their birthday, we have a cake and grandma comes over. They can choose to have a sleep over with 2 friends and an outing to the movies or an arcade.

 

[okeydokey]

My DD just turned 12 and this is the first year we did not have a party for her. She did invite two friends out to lunch and a movie though, so now I guess it's a birthday outing.

 

[taximomfor4]

Maybe it's because I only had one birthday party when I was a kid, but since my girls were born, birthdays have been a huge deal for our family... they choose to have a party, or just eat cake and ice cream at home and have the budget rolled over into gifts. They've always chosen the party.

I figure, life's short. Why not make one day a year extra special for the ones you love?

I never had a birthday party...well, I had several friends sleep over one year. But no "theme", games, or goodie bags.

You and I apparently, however, agree on giving a choice to have a party or not...our kids mostly just choose the opposite way, lol. I feel that we make their "day" special anyway, just not in a large group. They choose dinner, get something they really want, and have a cake just for them.

 

[minkydog]

Had a conversation at work yesterday about celebrating your child's birthday. Most families, I assume have some type of party for their child's birthday. Whether it's a small gathering with a couple friends from school or a larger gathering with family members & friends.

The question that came up was, at what age do you STOP having a party for your child? I know people who have simple parties with cake/ice cream/gifts, then I know people who have extravagant parties.

But anyways, I was wondering.....if you normally have a party for your child with family, friends, cake, ice cream, etc....what age do you stop doing that? I know there's no certain age, but do you have an older child that you no longer invite people over to celebrate. Maybe you might go to the child's favorite restaurant for dinner, but have you stopped having the big ole party?

We do parties from 4 to 13, and a sweet 16, if they want it. Before 4, we only do family parties with cake and ice cream, maybe invite one friend. The "party" is actually just free-play in the backyard or playing dress-ups.

My kids have always been given a budget to work with. This sprang out of a situation where DS-then-9 wanted to plan this huge party. The sky's the lmit! So I gave him $100 and told him to plan his party. He made some plans and I took him to the store to price out his food, decorations, goody bag items. He was shocked! Boy, that opened his eyes and he stream-lined that party right away. In the end, he managed to make a nice little party for about $75, so I let him keep the remaining $25 as a gift. Win-win.

Last year was DD big 16 party. We offered to host a large party and have a dance at out house. She didn't really want that. What she wanted was to take her 4 BFFs up to the mountains and go camping for 4 days. Okaaaay...we're big campers and she has all her own equipment, so this really wasn't a very expensive option. Instead of favors I opted to pay for each girl to go horseback riding for an hour. They had a ball! And the next day it snowed! Best birthday evah!

 

[marcyinPA]

We stopped having "friend" parties in third grade for my oldest, and kindergarten for my youngest. Our boys both have birthdays in May, 8 days apart, with one of them usually falling on Mother's Day, so we started the tradition of traveling, or doing something "extra" special as a family for their birthdays.

We've been to Disney a couple of times, and the beach a few times. We've gone to baseball games, amusement parks, etc. Sometimes we've gone with friends, and sometimes just our family.

This year will be the same. We're going to take in a baseball game for my DS14's 15th birthday, which is on Mother's Day this year. We'll go out for dinner after. The following weekend, we're headed to the beach for the weekend to celebrate both of their birthdays, and out to our favorite crab house while we are there. I got a really good rate for our fav. hotel's 'anniversary" weekends...$42 a night with the past customer discount!

I usually make one birthday cake sometime during their birthday week too...no need for two cakes here!

 

[Momvic5]

For my family, it depends on the interest of my children at the time. We don't follow a rule or have an age limit on parties. We just usually try to give them what they are interested in...whether it be having a party or skipping the party and receiving a more expensive gift or going to a special place like a water/amusement park. When they were little (1-4yrs or so), our parties were small consisting of family members and a few friends. As they are getting older, we are going with fewer family members and more friends. My older DS is going on 14, and by his own wishes, he hasn't had a party in 4 years. This year; however, he wants a paintball war party...so we are planning a paintball war party with 5 of his friends. My DD10 wants a party every year with her closest friends. She loves simple parties...the kind were you eat pizza and make t-shirts or play games. My younger DS8 doesn't really care for parties...he had rather go somewhere special and do something fun or like last year, he was willing to give up his party to receive a more expensive gift. For us, it just depends on the child and their interest at the time - and if it is within reason.

 

[Tink9721]

I had those "invite the whole class" parties in kindergarten through 3rd grade. 6th, 7th, and 8th I had small parties. No more than 10 kids. Just bowling and pizza. My mom's birthday is the day before mine and we always have a little family party at home. Just us, my dad, my grandma, my aunt and uncle, and some of my cousins. I'm 16 now and I didn't have a "sweet 16" or anything like that. Instead my mom took me to a Red Sox game We usually go out for dinner on my birthday too. I'm going to a Sox game again for my 17th next month! Except this time I'm going with my dad. I payed for half of it and my mom payed for the rest as a joint birthday present for me and my dad(his is March 20). I really don't want anymore parties, except the family parties. I prefer the Sox games

 

[Art 1]

We have always had big parties for our children, birthdays are fun for us. My wife spent $10,000 for the daughters birthday last year when she turned 17. Her friends continue to have big parties even thru senior year.

 

[daisy2jae]

Birthdays are very important to us. Our children have bday parties with friends till 10 yrs. After that they can do something special...friend over night, go to a movie, etc... However until I'm gone we will celebrate our children's bdays as a family. No matter what they'll always get cake and icecream at home. Once they are gone I'll either mail them a cupcake or if in driving distance I will drive to them. I know on my bday my mom always makes me a special treat or takes me to dinner. I'm 29 and I still look forward to my bday.

 

[emer95]

We have always had big parties for our children, birthdays are fun for us. My wife spent $10,000 for the daughters birthday last year when she turned 17. Her friends continue to have big parties even thru senior year.

Ok, picking up my jaw here...

I'm very thankful for the previous poster who said that they hated throwing birthday parties. That is very comforting to me because I feel the same way and I feel guilty about it. Everyone in my family has an enormous family party for every birthday person (including adults). That's the "rule" and I'd love to break it. It ends up being approx. 45 people, and we do a big meal, appetizers, cakes, drinks, goodies bags, etc. and it costs a small fortune. Although nowhere even close to $10,000, good grief!! Plus the drama of family dynamics leaves me stressed beyond belief and I end up hating every second of it.

I don't mind kid parties. I love seeing my children have fun with their friends. My kids are getting to the age where I am ready to be done with big parties, and just celebrate them in a small, fun, immediate-family way.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

We have always had big parties for our children, birthdays are fun for us. My wife spent $10,000 for the daughters birthday last year when she turned 17. Her friends continue to have big parties even thru senior year.

if you feel like sharing, can you tell us what that party consisted of? was it a trip?

 

[quasar4legs]

I didn't know you could stop having parties

In our large extended family there is a party of some sort for every person, every year. At my 93 year old aunt's party last year she sang a song and did a little dance (no alcohol involved). We have a 'mad' uncle that does hopeless magic tricks with a flying carpet and another relative that recites bush poetry.

"special age birthdays" might involve a more formal party but we celebrate every birthday with great gusto.
When the kids were little we often had separate parties for family and friends but now it all tends to be combined.

I love parties

 

[portocall]

My children have a party from 1-4 years old. For their 5th birthday they get a trip to Disney. After that, we invite 1-3 of their closest friends to go somewhere fun. I didn't intend for it to work out that way in the begining. For my oldest son, my cousin got married and we were in Central Florida and threw in a day trip to the Magic Kingdom and told him Happy Birthday. The next year, Hurricane Katrina came and we were in Central Florida on our extended evacuation and decided that our middle son should get to spend his birthday at the Magic Kingdom since he was really upset the party we had been planning was not to be. Since their circle of friends were upset for a while after that, we decided to just do fun things instead of big parties from then on and they were happy with that. When our youngest turned five, since the older two spent their birthdays at the Magic Kingdom, we moved our trip up from the projected date to get as close to his birthday as possible so he could do it too. To be honest, I never really enjoyed the party thing so I am grateful it is over for us here.

 

[*pixie*dust*]

My family must just love to party because we have one every year for every single person. I would say that the kids have 2 parties a year until they are about 12.....a friends party and a family dinner party with Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. After 12 or so, we add friends to the Family party.

My Nephew will be 19 this week and we are having a party Sunday night. It will be the whole family plus his girlfriend and his close group of friends with dinner and cake.

Last week started our birthday marathon with dh last week, my nephew this week, his Mom on the 18th, my neice, a close family friend and myself all on the 2nd of next month.....we kind of get sick of each other by Easter

lol! I was thinking the same thing. Everyone in our family, regardless of age, gets a family party for their birthday. Now, I don't mean a pony, clown and bounce-bounce for Grandma but we do have a meal, decorate a little and have a cake.

 

[ilovejack02]

Never age out at our house lol.

My oldest is 21 , about the age of 12 we stopped invitation parties and he just started inviting friends to sleep over or go to movies or bowling. Never really said it was a bday party to the friends, we didn't need or really want gifts at that age. Of course the family usually got him something as we did also.

My youngest is 7 and we have had some sort of party every year, usually two.

One with close friends and then usually on his actual day we have the family over for dinner and cake. We dont do class parties though, we have so many friends outside of school, can't include the class too.

If my 21 year is up for it this year, I will invite all the family over for dinner also to celebrate.. which includes about 14 people .

We do this for everyone, DH will be 40 this year, so I am going to throw a big surprise party, for me we usually just get friends together and go out to dinner.

 

[Tink9721]

We have always had big parties for our children, birthdays are fun for us. My wife spent $10,000 for the daughters birthday last year when she turned 17. Her friends continue to have big parties even thru senior year.

How do you spend that much on a birthday party? When we went to a Red Sox game last year for my birthday, there were 4 of us and we had front row seats on the first base line. 500 dollars total, and I was feeling guilty that my mom spent that much.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We phase out as they get older. Last year, when my second dd turned 7, she had inquired about party budget, gift budget and the cost of a DS. The DS would be out of her gift budget--but she volunteered to not have a party so that she could get it.

I have a friend that beginning at age 10, the girls go to every other year--and only then it is something small until their 16th birthday when they can get something a little bigger.

My oldest is turning 10 this year and decided she wants the Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and lunch in the castle. To do this--no party, no gifts...BBB is the gift.

So I guess we offer nicer "gifts" or "events" in lieu of party. And I like it better that way. I didn't have parties as a kid, so I didn't deprive my kiddos--but they are realizing that they can get a nicer b-day gift without the party.

 

[Nik's Mom]

Each of my kids had a birthday party for their first birthday, then had another one for their 6 and 9th birthdays. My kids would rather do something fun as a family than have a party. We let them pick what they want to do. They've only asked for a party one time. And that was when we moved from California and they knew it would be the last birthday surrounded by their friends and family for a while.

We do have a have a birthday cake and blow out candles for every birthday in the house.